Typical employees that can cause a data breach

Cybercrime is the biggest threat to your company due to typical employees that can cause a data breach.

Organizations are realizing that trusted and trained employees can also pose an enormous threat to your IT security. A recent study discovered that 74% of organizations reported that they were vulnerable to insider threats and 56% of IT security professionals have stated there are certain insider IT security threats that have become more frequent.

Sometimes cyber attacks may be caused by employees with a grudge however it may also occur due to negligence or simple human error.

Here are three types of employees that can cause a data breach.

Employee Number 1 – Innocent actions

A data breach can occur from innocent employees and cause as much damage as malicious cybercriminals. This usually comes down to an innocent click, not being trained, or cyber criminals being extremely creative. Work with your employees and get them up to up to speed on proper IT policies. You should also have a multiple layered approaches to security to protect your business including next-generation firewall, antivirus, and malware protection to mention a few.

Employee Number 2 – Careless or negligent

Almost everyone has seen those security warnings that come up on your screen. They ask you to take immediate action or the police will be contacted. This is a classic Ransomware tactic and its success rate has been huge! Google released some numbers and it discovered that 25 million Chrome warnings were ignored by 70.2% of the time due to users’ lack of technical knowledge.

Employee Number 3 – Malicious

Malicious actions by employees also play a big part of insider data breaches. Recently, OFCOM which is UK’s communications regulator discovered that a former employee had been gathering its third-party data over a six-year period.

What can be done to protect yourself from typical employees that can cause a data breach?

So many studies have shown that most respondents consider human behavior to be the greatest risk to data protection and data breach. The impact of a data breach will cause damage to businesses, including financial losses and the damage to the organization’s reputation. Most organizations want to find ways to mitigate and limit data breach.

All organizations need to increase employee awareness and ensure all employees are aware of the potential impact of their actions. It is important to involve all employees in proper IT training and policies.

Keep your data and information safe with encryption. Monitor data and behaviour of employees so you can be aware of the risk.

BOYD (bring your own device) is a significant risk if not managed properly. This needs to be carefully monitored and controlled.

Typical employees that can cause a data breach but you can protect your organization.